PRO FOOTBALL

PRO FOOTBALL; If the Truth Hurts, the Giants Must Be Aching

By GERALD ESKENAZI,

Published: October 6, 1992

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., Oct. 5—
Coach Ray Handley, considering the Giants' 1-3 record after losing to the Raiders on Sunday, concluded today that the team's biggest problem was that it "didn't exhibit a killer instinct."

"I felt it was a game we should have won," Handley said. "We let them get away. That was the most frustrating thing of all."

The Giants performed well for virtually the entire first half against the Raiders, who had lost all four previous games. Then the Giants blew it and bowed by 13-10.

The players know something isn't quite right, whatever it's called.

"When we feel like it, we can play," said the linebacker Steve DeOssie. "I just can't understand why we don't feel like it more often."

Left unsaid, by players and coach, is that this kind of inconsistency often indicates a lack of talent. Consider these problems:

*There is no dominant Giants' pass-rusher. After a quarter of the season, the Giants have all of six sacks.

*No game-in, game-out running threat (Rodney Hampton hasn't been able to average 4 yards a carry).

"You don't necessarily need to have the killer instinct," said Ottis Anderson. "You have to have enough at the end to win. And that's what we don't have right now.

"In the past we knew the play would be made by someone. Now we don't know where it's coming from. Who's the guy who will make the play? I'm not saying we don't have the capability. It's just that we don't know from where."

Certainly, the Giants looked intriguing in almost pulling out a second-half upset over Dallas after trailing by 34-0. That followed their opening-game loss to San Francisco. Then they beat the Bears.

Then they had the Raiders down by 7-0, with the ball a few feet away from the goal-line in the closing seconds of the first half.

But Eric Moore didn't ask, or didn't hear, whether he was supposed to be in on the goal-line attack. The guard stayed on the sideline, and the Giants were forced to call a timeout because they had only 10 men on the field.

In the end, the Giants were left with enough time for only one play, and Handley, forsaking the killer instinct, went for the field goal.

He explained why today:

"I learned a lesson last year against Pittsburgh. They're down, 20-0, and Chuck Noll goes for a field goal. I thought that was crazy. And Tim Rooney told me that's the way he's always been -- come away with something."

Rooney worked for the Steelers before becoming the Giants' personnel director.

Still, the way DeOssie saw it, the Giants squandered a chance to take command. Trouble Started Early

"It's not so much the points, but it's what had to be done and wasn't," he said. "A big team doesn't make that mistake. The downturn didn't begin in the second half. It began the end of the first half."

Handley was more composed today than he had been on Sunday. He did not launch into another tirade against the players. In fact, he explained to them that it doesn't matter when in the season you win -- as long as you win.

That seems to be the Giants' theme now. A victory would have put them at .500, and not far from the division lead. Now, it is the standing at the end of the season that matters. EXTRA POINTS

The Giants' poor clock management at the end of the first half was especially frustrating to Coach RAY HANDLEY because it was an area that he had been entrusted with under the previous head coach, BILL PARCELLS. So frustrating that after the game when a reporter asked Handley why they were a man short, he shouted: "We had 10 guys. We needed 11."

LAWRENCE TAYLOR apparently was fined for coming late to a team meeting Saturday in Los Angeles. He was playing golf. . . . Remember a few weeks ago when, in a bid to make the Jets feel more at home, the walls near the locker room were painted neutral tan instead of Giants' blue? Apparently, the Giants didn't like that shade of brown. Now there is a blue stripe and a Jets' green stripe on the white wall. . . . Handley, a Stanford man, lorded Saturday's Stanford victory over his top draft pick, DEREK BROWN of Notre Dame. "He did not want to look me in the eye Saturday night," said Handley. "I didn't make a wager but he should have paid me on principle." . . . SEAN LANDETA pronounced himself "100 percent healed," thanks to the week layoff. He averaged almost 44 yards on six punts against the Raiders, apparently healed from a groin injury dating to preseason.